P.S. The coming wave of debate about the relevance of a candidate's extramarital affairs may be an unwelcome development for the McCain team (although the Iseman allegations were of course denied and never proven).

Elizabeth Edwards will be able to speak truth to power at the Democratic Convention about the need for Universal Health Care and John McCain won't be able to say squat against her. She not only has terminal cancer, but is the "cheated on" wife of a major adultery scandal.

So far between this and the Clinton delegate voting controversy, the Democratic Convention is turning into a major media Event. Just like the Obama team wants it. By contrast, the big "news" at the Republican National Convention revolvesaround Vice President Cheney. I like that comparison.

More handwringing about Obama's optics: I see that tickets for his acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field stadium sold out instantly. In light of the apparent traction Republicans got with their 'Celebrity' meme you have to wonder if the Obama team is reconsidering the wisdom of this move. I would recommend any possible stagecraft to minimize the event's scale.

What traction? With political pundits? I don't see any polls that support this "traction" idea. Why minimize it? Why think small? When was the last time anyone generated this much excitement? The Republicans are just jealous, small, and petty. You are going to have 75,000 people excited about politics. It's not like Sen. Obama is going to get on the stage and sing "I Kissed A Girl" to them - no, he's going to have a serious discussion about the future of our country.

Appearing for about an hour before the council, a defensive Nagin repeatedly reassured members that he had launched an internal investigation, but declined to give details under pointed questioning. Nagin's press secretary Ceeon Quiett later said via e-mail that the investigation would be conducted by the same city office that oversaw NOAH's work in the first place, the Housing Department and Office of Federal and State Programs.

But when it comes to promises, it's worth pointing out that, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center's analysis of both candidates' proposed plans, Obama would cut taxes for those making in the range of $38,000 to $66,000 three to almost eight times more than McCain would.

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

He does make this great point:

Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.

According to Mark Halperin, our illustrious Vice President will actually attend his own Republican Convention. And here I thought their "famous hatred" of John McCain would mean that he couldn't make it.

A[n Ohio] party official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he spoke to a member of the Obama campaign who told him that the campaign plans to hire 300 paid organizers for its field work, 25 in Franklin County alone.

And it's just the campaign, it doesn't even include how many will be hired by the DNC. Hooray Fifty State Strategy! Hooray beer!